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Battle
Battles are a large part of Mount&Blade as they occur rather often and help you to progress through the game. They can be solved in two ways. One of your options is to allow your troops to attack without you, allowing the game to generate your losses and the enemies' losses until one side emerges the victor. The second option involves directly leading your troops in combat. This is arguably the best way to engage in any battle as your presence can easily beat staggering odds. To start a battle you can: attack, be attacked, or join a battle already in progress (however must be an enemy of one of the opposing armies, e.g. bandits or an opposing faction). At the end of battle, you will receive the after action report which will tell you the casualties, allow you to take prisoners, and collect loot. Terrain It goes without saying that different terrain requires different tactics and formations. Dismount your knights when battlefield is mountainous, and attract your enemies into deep rivers and slow them down. * Terrain with river : Rivers practically slow down everyone. Rivers are good ambush spots for a shock troopers, e.g. Nord Huscarls. Hiding your troops inside rivers make the enemy's Archery/Cavalry tactics useless and forces them to come down and fight in close combat. But it is a worst nightmare for cavalry like Swadian Knights as it stops charges like magic. On the other hand, it can be used as good protection for archers as the river gives them more time to lay down projectiles at their distant targets. * Plains : Good for cavalry, bad for infantry. Even the best Rhodok spearmen will find their party swarmed by horsemen. Occasionally you will find a hill. If you do, place your archers/crossbowmen there. * Gorges : Just plains with some hills and bumps. Light cavalry will have more chance of victory against their heavy counterparts. * Mountains : Dismount everyone. There's no point trying to ride the cliff mounted. Get your troops in a good formation on high ground. * Forest : Goes same as gorge, but trees will make cavalry operations really difficult. It doesn't really matter for heavy cavalry. Archers can have trouble hitting targets due to obstructions. Commands Using commands can be another way of defeating your opponents or simply reducing your loses. Using the number keys (Default setting) you can select a group your army such as your infantry, cavalry, or archers and then give them an order with the Function keys (F1-F5 as a Default setting) to hold a position or follow the player etc. Hit the Backspace key during battle to see a list of all the available commands. Unit type # Everyone # Cavalry # Infantry # Archers Orders *F1 - Stand ground *F2 - Follow me *F3 - Charge *F4 - Mount/Dismount *F5 - Hold Fire/Fire at Will *Skirmish *F8 - Tighter formation *F9 - Looser formation Formations *Line *Square *Wedge *Circle *Staggered *Geek There do not seem to be any in-battle commands that affect formation. Tactics There are many things to consider when planning out a battle including your surroundings, your army composition, and your own style of play as these factors will determine your best course of action. Mount and Blade can become a very tactical game under the correct circumstances. Here are some basic tactics that can be very useful. Neutralizing enemies is not the only way to the victory. You can just 'scare' them out of the field (Warband only). Morale Enemy units have their own morale rate, which is determined by recent battle outcomes. * Taking down the lords, neutralizing the troops damage their morale. * When their morale reaches a certain limit, they will run to the battlefield border and escape from the battle. * Runaway enemies never fight back and destroying them damages the morale of the army too, causing further panic. * Oftentimes a dramatic attack can damage the morale of the enemy greatly (e.g. a horse charge); Some soldiers will start to run away after getting bit of damage. * This is the most important thing to remember when you are fighting huge, but not fully organized parties. * Runaway soldiers become Deserters later. Ranged Combat Archers and crossbowman are much more effective when positioned on hills. * All approaching units will be slowed by the terrain, allowing your ranged units to fire more shots at them. * Cavalry will also be unable to gain the momentum that they use to charge and deliver heavy blows. * It is important to note that placing your ranged troops on elevated ground will also make them targets for enemy ranged units. Troops without ranged capability can avoid volleys of projectiles by being positioned behind hills. *This is a very effective way of protecting your troops from archers and is especially useful if you don't like losing your poorly-shielded powerhouse units like Hired Blades. *This may be a bad idea against cavalry as they will gain speed coming over the hill, increasing their damage when they meet your line. Infantry With foot troops, a slow advance can be best at times, such as against large numbers of ranged troops. *When using heavy infantry with large shields (most higher ranked Nordic troops for example), advancing slowly will cause them to march with shields raised. A charge when close will often doom the archers/crossbowmen/skirmishers. *If archers run out of ammunition, they will charge into your lines and be quickly killed. Foot soldiers of any kind can benefit from being in a compressed formation when fighting cavalry. *Tightening troops formations will remove the gap that cavalry use to escape after landing a blow on your forces. This will cause the horse to stop dead, spelling almost certain doom for its rider. *Cavalry who use projectiles will not be beat this way. It could make it worse. However, they will eventually run out of ammunition and charge, and will quickly fall. Cavalry Cavalry can be used to distract an enemy army while your other troops relocate. *This works very well at the beginning of a battle if you wish to move your troops onto elevated ground or any other part of the map. *There is a good chance your cavalry will be lost. *On the other hand, cavalry can be used as the core of your army. A full army of knights is basically unstoppable by any troops and, being the strongest of cavalry, knights will not lose to other cavalry. If you order your infantry to hold position and keep formation, only their cavalry will charge and their infantries and archers will reach you much later. This will prevent your army from breaking up. (When your advantage is similar/higher, this is always true) *Pick off the soldiers on the outskirt of the formation, and make them disorganized. *When they are ordered to march slowly, they never swarm you and archers hold fire. *Remember that the enemy cavalry will charge your troops anyway. Out numbered If your advantage is miserable, any type of any troops of any kingdom will charge mindlessly against you. *If this kind of thing happens you're in trouble, but if you have a good army, it is still possible to win. Enemies will be horribly disorganized and somewhat scattered allowing an army of knights to run through them like paper. If you have a largely range-based army, you can tell your army to spread out and hold fire until the enemy gets close. When they do, begin firing and watch their scattered soldiers drop to the ground. *Even Kingdom of Rhodoks spear troops will run into you. Kingdom of Swadia always seems to have "Prepare time" to line their cavalry before charge. *This is best chance to strike them without any resistance. *Remember that once their cavalry successfully charge, your infantry casualties become inevitable. Some less obvious strategies can win you fights that are insanely in enemy favor. *If you fight anyone in a village, all of their troops will spawn without their horses. This will make for a quick slaughter of Khergits or even Swadian Knights. *When you are defending a castle (before they are actually in battle with your castle), wait for the enemies to enter the castle (you must be waiting outside). You can attack the last few groups that are on the way to your castle and essentially cut their entire army in half as the soldiers in your castle already will not join this fight. You can help your castle against the other half right after. *If you find you do not like the terrain you are currently fighting on, you can retreat (before they get too close; you will lose troops if you wait too long). There will be 3 different maps that will rotate as you retreat. Find your favorite one (perhaps one with a river if you have a lot of archers) and defeat your opponents on it. *If you have a lot of archers (or perhaps a pure archer army), you can retreat before the enemies get to close and they will start far away again. You can do this repeatedly until you have killed thousands of troops if you desire. So long as they don't have too many good archers in their army. *Use obstacles to stop cavalry charges. Rocks on the field, trees, idle horses, and even your battle standard where you start will stop cavalry in their tracks. You can defeat Khergit armies on flat terrain with strategies like this - even when you only have archers and/or infantry. Tips and Trivia *Your horse can double as a meat shield should you have lost yours, but it will run away after being damaged. It's a useless tactic unless your horse is an arrow-proof Charger. *Strong armor is very important if you play on normal settings. *Angle your shield towards the direction of incoming fire when charging an archer line (up if above, down if below). Also, if enemy archers are firing at you from a distance, angle your shield up: There's no way for them to fire straight at you, only in an arc. *Fighting in the front lines will give you quick access to fallen weapons that can replenish your ammunition or give you an edge on certain opponents (piercing weapons against heavily armoured foes). *Whenever possible, fight on a horse. Mounted combat against infantry gives you the advantage of speed against them, allowing you to land a blow, escape, then rinse and repeat. In addition a horse charging an infantryman will knock them out of guard and do a little blunt damage. *Attacking an enemy's ranged troop line will make most of them switch to melee, possibly giving your troops a breather from their fire. Bring some mounted friends and step on some toes while chopping off heads. Remember not to get stuck though. *If your troops are weak and you are fighting against superior forces, never forget to attack first and kill as many enemies as you can before you order your troops into the battle. *In the beginning of the game (not just after you started) get some recruits (most of them will die) and attack a small (6-8 members) Sea raider party and use the tactic above to help you. From this fight you will get good equipment which will sell for a very good price and a large number of experience. *If you are a horse archer fighting against troops with archers, try taking their dropped arrow bag, or even more helpful is to quickly ride back to where you spawned on the battle map and access your inventory chest, this will automatically restore your ammo. *In sieges and similar battles, you can replenish your stocks from projectiles embedded in obstacles or the ground (one at a time however). This can help if fighting crossbowmen as an archer (Warband only). *Often you can stall enemy charges or turn around enemies so that their shields are facing the wrong way by riding ahead of your army. This can make your cavalry charge deadly against Rhodoks because they are not paying attention to all of your cavalry. This doubles as a way to also make enemies stall at your favorite range from your archer line (often with their shields the wrong way). However be careful to not get hit (especially from projectiles). *Be careful when ordering your troops to attack without you, as many units are less effective in the simulated battle vs. the actual battle. See also *Strategy and Tactics: General combat and faction specializations *Player Tactics: Specific combat tips and tricks Category:Gameplay Category:Tactics